India would be looking to oppose the any form of internet governance rules set up under the UN.

Internet censorship already exists in many countries, in which many social networks, YouTube and search engines fine themselves blocked in countries.

But ITU’s plans are to take such censorship further in laying down rules for content published on the internet across the world. In effect it would take over all authority from ICANN and give itself censorship powers. ICANN itself does not do any content regulation and more or less confines itself to technical standardization.

The big supporters of the creating new internet governance rules at the UN are not surprisingly Russia and China along with few more countries. Some of these rules will also include issues of tariffs applied by governments on certain sites along with handing over registration of country specific domains like to the governments rather than ICANN.

The UN sponsored summit called World Conference in International Telecommunications at Dubai next month, where talks on setting up internet governance will be held between countries.

India’s flirtation with Net Censorship!

The government in India has not necessarily brought about heavy handed net censorship like that of China. But many internet users are worried with rising number of content removal requests from government agencies. Indian government in the past had actually recommended manual screening of content on social media sites. NGOs and activists have also held protests against rising cases of net censorship in India.

But it a relief to see India not on the side of countries like Russia and China on issues of regulating content on the internet.

Who else is opposing Net Censorship?

Not surprising one of the biggest opposition to ITU’s plans is from the search giant Google. Google owns YouTube which is a favorite target of many countries which try to crack down on internet freedom.

Would you support content regulation by the UN? Do drop in your comments and views.

 

Technorati Tags: Censorhip,India,Internet

BREAKING NEWS!

Google reports 'alarming' rise in government censorship requests!

Google says government requests to take down content are up compared with last year.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Google says government requests to remove Web content are way up
• In last half of 2011, U.S. agencies asked Google to remove 6,192 pieces of content
• That's up 718% compared with the previous six-month period
• Google released its biannual transparency report Sunday night

Study: Pound for Pound, Amazon Trounces Google in App Cash

By Rachelle Dragani
When considered on a revenue-per-user basis, iTunes is the leading app store for in-app purchase income, according to a recent study. But the gap between second and third place is tremendous. While Amazon's Appstore makes almost as much as iTunes on a revenue-per-user basis, Google Play lags way behind, taking in less than a quarter of iTunes' revenue-per-user in-app cash flow.

Free E-Mail News Alerts from ECT News Network
Keep up with the latest breaking business and technology news from ECT News Network. Receive real-time alerts as stories break -- or a daily version dispatched once each day. Easily add or eliminate keywords and modify service right from your inbox. Target your news today!  

ZTE Optik Unboxing and Review

Tablets have been a mixed bag for most carriers and many consumers. Their size and capabilities are appealing, but the price has just been too high for many people to consider buying a tablet. ZTE and Sprint plan to turn that hesitation upside down with the ZTE Optik for Sprint. The ZTE Optik is both powerful and affordable, with a 7-inch high-resolution display (1280 x 800 pixels), dual-core processor, 16GB of onboard storage and a microSD slot for memory expansion, and it runs the tablet-friendly Android 3.2 operating system. 

The options when buying a netbook

One person's netbook might be called a laptop by someone else
What is the difference between a laptop (or to use an Americanism, a "notebook") and a netbook? It depends who you ask.
What some manufacturers call netbooks, others call laptops or even ultra-light or ultra-portable laptops.
There is no universally agreed definition in terms of size, weight, screen size or battery life.
The best you can say is that there are some portable computers that are thinner, lighter and have longer battery lives than others, and these are generally referred to as netbooks.

What is a netbook?
Netbooks are designed for basic tasks and basic internet browsing and e-mail. 

They usually come with limited processing power (up to 1.3GHz), Windows XP or Linux (Ubuntu) operating system, and no more than 80GB of storage. 

Kenyan chief foils robbery via Twitter, highlights reach of social media

 

Kenyan Chief Francis Kariuki mobilizes his community using Twitter, despite the lack of Internet access.
(CNN) -- A Kenyan chief in a town far from the bustling capital foiled a predawn robbery recently using Twitter, highlighting the far-reaching effects of social media in areas that don't have access to the Internet.
Chief Francis Kariuki said he got a call in the dead of the night that thieves had broken into a neighbor's house.

What should you do if your Google Ranking Falls and you lose all your traffic?

One of the most frightening things that can happen to a blogger making their living from blogging is when the traffic to their blogs dries up for one reason or another. 
 
There are numerous reasons why this might happen ranging from being hacked, to having a server outage, to not backing up a blog and losing data etc
Another common reason for loosing traffic is when Google (or some other Search Engine) tweaks the way that they rank sites and your blog’s position for some (or all) keywords falls (or even disappears).
I’ve had a number of readers write to me in the last few weeks telling me that this has happened to them and in panic asking for advice. 

European version of S.O.P.A Passes

Technorati Tags: cfopyright,ACTA

Most member states of the European Union have signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at a ceremony in Tokyo, Japan on Thursday, Jan. 26.
ACTA is a global treaty that tries to normalize copyright protection and IP standards. It’s similar to SOPA and PIPA, proposed U.S. laws which have recently been dropped after massive internet protests, but in many ways even more dangerous.
Unfortunately (and unlike SOPA and PIPA), ACTA has been signed by many states without a wide, open public discussion. Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States signed the ACTA on 1 Oct 2011. 

The Law of Online Sharing

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg will eventually have to deal with the fact that all growth has limits.

Credit: Technology Review
The idea of limitless growth gives sleepless nights to environmentalists, but not to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He espouses a law of social sharing, which predicts that every year, for the foreseeable future, the amount of information you share on the Web will double. 

Ultrabooks appear to be the star product category of CES 2012.

The super-thin notebook computers are being pushed by Intel as well as several of its hardware partners. Ultrabooks emphasis design, performance and a degree of affordability, but will consumers bite?
Ultrabooks will make a strong showing at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), to be held in Las Vegas Jan. 10-13, with Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and several computer vendor partners demoing products.
"The new category is already gaining momentum, with many Ultrabooks powered by second-generation Intel Core processors in the market today, and more than 60 designs already underway for 2012," Intel spokesperson Becky Emmett told TechNewsWorld.
"[Ultrabooks] are an attractive product and very portable," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "The intention is to push them [into the] mainstream."
"The shipment of Windows 8 ... will put tablet features into Ultrabook-like products, and tablets may become redundant," Enderle suggested.
People "don't want to carry multiple large devices," and Ultrabooks will gain tablet-like features such as touch, Enderle explained.

What's an Ultrabook? 

 

Intel announced the Ultrabook category at Computex in Taipei in May, and it has trademarked the term.
Ultrabooks are intended to be less than 0.8 inches (21 mm) thin and are priced at levels Intel describes as "mainstream."
The first Ultrabooks, based on second-generation Intel Core processors, nicknamed "Sandy Bridge," hit the market in 2011. Many Ultrabooks to be announced at CES 2012 will be powered by the third-generation Intel Core processor, nicknamed "Ivy Bridge." They will be availability in systems in Spring, Intel's Emmett said.
These will be followed in 2013 by Ultrabooks powered by the fourth-generation Intel Core processor, nicknamed "Haswell," Emmett stated.

To the Bridg...

 

We’re In Trouble NOW

S.O.P.A Passed

 

Welcome to the Police State

 

Technorati Tags: stop internet piracy act passed. s.o.p.a,civil liberties,treason

Google revenue soars, while G+ network grows to 40 million By Julianne Pepitone @CNNMoneyTech October 13, 2011: 5:22 PM ET

Under CEO Larry Page, Google has embarked on a series of bold bets, including Google+ and its Motorola acquisition.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Google reported third-quarter earnings that handily beat estimates, and announced that its three-month-old Google+ social network now has 40 million users.
That's a big increase from the 10 million users Google+ had at the end of Google's last quarter, when it remained in a "limited" trial phase. The network opened to the public in late September.
In an earnings release late Thursday, Google said it earned $9.72 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of $8.74 per share.

More After The Jump

The Online Security Generation Gap

 

Technorati Tags: Internbet Securiy,Generation Gap

Only the Hot Stuff

Technorati Tags: Paulo Gabriel,webn design,art

Paulo Gabriel is a 26 year old designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil. He has worked as a web designer since 2006, but websites and blogs have been a hobby for him since 1999. Here Paolo brings only the hot stuff for you.




 

ICANN approves open Web domain name rules: .anything is possible.

Move over .com, get ready for .anything .you .can .think .of.

The body that controls the way Internet domain names work,

known as ICANN, has voted to open up the naming system so that any established organization with enough cash can apply to create its own version of .com, .org or .gov.

In the for-profit world, that means that instead of going to coke.com or nike.com, you might be able to go to drink.coke or justdoit.nike.  Nonprofit groups could reserve the .school domain and hand one out to every elementary school.  Cities could consolidate their online presence at .nyc or .losangeles.  And interest groups could stake out their own corner of the Web by offering every auto junkie a .car domain name, every law firm a .law address, and every restaurant a site that ended with .food.

But just like real estate in the real world, this new virtual land won't come cheap.  The price tag to get a new domain created is $185,000.  Only "established public or private organizations" can apply, and all applications must prove they have the technical capability necessary to keep a domain running.

ICANN, the Los Angeles-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has been planning the naming expansion for much of the last decade.  The group's Board of Directors approved the change at a board meeting in Singapore on Monday morning.

ICANN, long the steward of the Internet's naming system, will begin accepting applications soon -- and allow parties a three month window to apply for a new name.

Internet observers expect that the initial expansion might bring 500 new options for site suffixes, which are called generic top-level domain names (or gTLDs).  There are only 22 now, including the original eight, (.com, .edu, .gov, .int., .mil, .net, .org and .arpa).

Starting in 2000, ICANN has added 14 new top-level domains, including .biz, .info and .jobs. Few of the  new names have caught on, with .com remaining the standard across many industries, even though it can be difficult and expensive to find new .com names, with the most desirable long ago snapped up by companies, individuals and cybersquatters.

ICANN hopes that by, in essence, creating huge new online land grants, that it will undo that naming gridlock, as well as make the Internet's naming system safer and more intuitive.  Users might know, for instance, that any website ending with .movie is a legitimate new film from a recognized studio or filmmaker, and won't lead to an Internet backwater that might be looking to snooker visitors.

“ICANN has opened the Internet’s naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today’s decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind,” said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's president and chief executive officer.

June 19, 2011 | 11:26 pm

 

Technorati Tags: Internet,domain names

Google is building Skype-like features into Chrome

Jun. 22, 2011 (6:05 pm) By: Alan Henry

Last month, when Microsoft bought Skype, Google execs pointed out that the only reason Microsoft got it was because Google backed out of acquiring Skype themselves at the last minute. Part of the reason that Google bailed on the talks was because they figured they could do Skype better in-house. Now it looks like they’re going to. Reports now are that Google is planning a Skype-like video and audio chat service for the Chrome browser.

Google recently released a software product called WebRTC (real time chat) as an open-source app that anyone could download, tweak, and work with. Google got the software when they acquired a company called Global IP Solutions back in 2010. Google has already pointed out that the product could be used to integrate video and audio chat into Gmail without forcing users to download a plug-in, as they do now.

At the same time though, Google isn’t stopping with Gmail. With the rapid growth of the Chrome browser and Google making a big play to get Chromebooks into the market, they want users to be be able to use video and voice chat regardless of whether they’re logged in to Gmail. According to CNet, Google wants to make WebRTC a web standard for videoconferencing, and is planning to roll it into the Chrome web browser.

If you’re worried the software will be exclusive to Chrome, don’t be. Google has already promised to keep the software open-source and royalty-free, and that they’ve engaged the Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software about including the technology with future versions of Firefox and Opera.

In the end, Google could scoop services like Skype entirely with a web application that anyone can roll into their web app or personal site. The idea is similar to services that already use Adobe Flash or JavaScipt for webcam chat, but WebRTC wouldn’t even require a plugin be installed first.

 

Technorati Tags: acquisitions,gmail,Gmail chat,Google,Google Talk,Google video chat,Microsoft,skype,video chat

New Internet Service STILL NOT activated! Blog will soon be unavailable AGAIN.

You will not believe the insanity that I’ve been through merely because I wanted to

terminate my home phone service in favor of “Free Standing” DSL.

If you don’t know what free standing DSL is, it’s when you can receive high speed internet through your telephone landline without having to actually have telephone service.

So  I called and ordered the stand alone DSL. Then I cancelled my phone service and I was happy to do so.  I am not xenophobic or jingo-istic by nature but there’s nothing better than dealing with Good Ol’ American incompetence and I sure wish that I had been.

After a week of my telephone service NOT being terminated and being told that my request was “rejected” without any explanation why, I was forced to contact  the U.S. agency in charge of Communications (FCC) who directed me to my state agency (SCC).

Now I was back on home turf speaking with a customer service representative\, whose Dixie accent was soothing.  She contacted the telephone company an d the very next day I received a call from the President of AT&T office and my phone service termination request was personally processed.  Fucking Un believable!

However my telephone service will not be officially terminated until Monday June 13 and that means that I cannot order the DSL service until Tuesday the 14th and then it will take up to ten days for the service to actually begin.  So the week of June 14, 2011 there will not be any blogs posted.

Thank you for you patience and understanding.

 

Technorati Tags: Telecommunicstions,DSL,AT&T

Don’t Get Caught Up in Dead Island Trailer Hype

Updated: Feb. 17, 2011; 3:15 p.m. PST

A great trailer can get you pumped for a videogame, but let’s practice some cautious optimism.

The trailer for Dead Island, scheduled to launch for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC at some point in 2011, is a riveting tease of the long-delayed zombie shooter. It may be the best videogame trailer I’ve ever seen; gorgeous, well-edited and emotionally engaging. The music is somber and the visuals are utterly harrowing. It makes the oversaturated zombie genre seem appealing again.

Only thing is, this isn’t really a game trailer in the traditional sense. It’s not a series of clips from the game. It’s a short film that takes place in the world of Dead Island.

“This trailer is meant to be illustrative of a scenario that might befall a typical vacationing family on the island,” a representative for publisher Deep Silver told Wired.com. Though the trailer is said to capture the game’s solemn tone and setting, it is not the same thing.

The trailer drummed up a lot of buzz for developer Techland, best known for the Western-themed Call of Juarez series. It’s been hyped by major pop-culture magazines and became a trending topic on Twitter.

It’s absolutely true that Dead Island could turn out to be a fantastic game, as some first-look previews are suggesting. But everyone is hyped up about a short film, not the game itself.

First and foremost, Techland didn’t make the Dead Island trailer — according to Develop, Scottish studio Axis Animation was in charge of production. Presumably the two teams worked together on the teaser, but we don’t know from whom the ideas sprung.

The game might feel nothing like what we’ve seen here. Juarez got mixed reviews, though a sequel fared somewhat better.

I’m reminded of 2007, back when Square Enix finally released a trailer for the long-delayed, highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII. The trailer was flashy and gorgeous, hyping up even the most casual of RPG fans. Then, after several years filled with delays, the game was a resounding disappointment. The trailer gave a false impression of the game, making it seem like a project that was well-along in development when in fact it was still flailing to find a direction.

If Dead Island’s experience and emotional impact are anything close to this trailer, it could be a great game. But perhaps we should wait until we actually see the game itself before we start drawing those links.

Technorati Tags: Dead Island,Gaming

Honeycomb LG G-Slate Android 3.0 tablet to have 3-D cams, Oh MY

The LG G-Slate tablet will have 3-D cams, when it is released said T-Mobile.  T-Mobile had already stated that the the LG G-Slate would ship with the new Android 3.0 OS, also know as Honeycomb and 1GHz dual-core Tegra processor from Nvidia.

Additionally T-Mobile has revealed that The LG Slate will have an 8.9-inch screen that would be able to display 720p HD video quite smoothly.  Next interesting specification of the LG G-Slate is its dual cameras present on the rear side of the tablet.  The cameras will allow you to shoot 3-D video with its 5-megapixel lens, and the video can be played back on-screen for viewing with 3-D glasses.  You can also play back the 1080p video and 3-D video on any compatible TVs using the HDMI output.

The LG G-Slate tablet also has a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video conferencing over 3G/4G from T-Mobile or Wi-Fi network.  Some of the other features include 32GB of internal memory, built-in gyroscope, accelerometer, adaptive lighting and flash supported web browser.  Price or availability date are yet to be announced by T-Mobile.

Technorati Tags: LG G-Slate,Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet,3-D cams

The ASUS Eee PC 1015PW netbook

The ASUS Eee PC 1015PW netbook is aimed at women – he Eee PC 1015PW  has similar specs like the Asus Eee PC1015PEM, where it features 10.1-inch LED-backlit display with 1024 x 600 pixel resolution and is powered by Intel Atom N550 1.50Ghz dual-core processor, a 250GB or 320GB of SATA hard drive with 500GB online ASUS Webstorage. Other features include a 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, ASUS’ ExpressGate fast booting OS, “F9? Failsafe system recovery, a webcam with a camera cover, chiclet keyboard and a card reader as well as 10 hours of battery life. Price is estimated to be $700.00.

Technorati Tags: The ASUS Eee PC 1015PW netbook,computers,internet